The Ramsey Show - App - Knowing When and How To Help a Family Member (Hour 2)

Episode Date: March 26, 2024

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today as we talk about your life and your money. It's a free call, and some say the advice is worth exactly what you pay for it. The phone number is 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225.

Linda is with us in Seattle. Hi, Linda. Welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hi. Thank you very much for taking my call. Sure. What's up? So I have a 26-year-old son, and he's getting a Ph.D.,

and he's a great kid, love him to death, great heart. He doesn't make a ton. He's on great kid, love him to death, great heart. He doesn't make a ton. He's on a budget. He's very aware of his expenses. He's in a low-rent area. The problem is he doesn't always have enough money to make ends meet without going into debt. My question is, should I be supplementing him monthly? I can't afford it. My question is, should I be supplementing him monthly?

I can't afford it. Or should I wait until he has a car repair and then give him that or a computer repair? I'm trying to get him on his feet. He has at least four more years of his program. I don't want to enable him, but we both don't want him. You know, he knows we don't want him to go into debt, but... What's the program? It's an environmental science program. You just start?

He's one year in. It's a five-year program for a PhD. Yeah. So they are, I guess here's my, for what? What's he going to do? Well, he's probably going to be working in a non-profit when he's done. He loves what he does. He's doing a lot of research. He does get paid. He has good benefits, medical, all of that. So he's going for five years to get a job that doesn't pay well? Well, I'm hoping he will make, you know,

enough money when he gets out to support himself. Well, I hope so after five freaking years working on a PhD. But I mean, his whole goal here is to work in an underpaid job. That's what he's working towards. You know, he might own the nonprofit, actually, when he's done. Well, then we would call that a for-profit. Why does it have to be a non-profit? I'm so confused.

Is he a TA? Yes. Okay. Does he have some restrictions on his work schedule? Yeah, like he can't really go out and get another job right now. Says who? Is that program specific? Because here's why. I got a second

PhD while working as an associate dean, dean of students at a law school, while also being a parent, while also working in the graduate school, teaching classes for extra money on top of all the other things. Now, I had a heroic wife that kept the house duct taped together and everything moving and running, but I hear grad students a lot telling me, you know, I just can't. And my first instinct is, I did, and you can. And I had to go see clients on top of that.

I mean, I had to see my clients at 6 o'clock in the morning or 7 in the morning or 7 at night because I had to go to my full-time job and be a parent. And so he, if he's got TA responsibilities, that's 20 hours a week and he gets his benefits and his tuition discount and his lab work. But there's nothing to say he can't go work at a restaurant and go get a full-time job somewhere else in an adjacent field that maybe it's going to lead to career opportunities bigger than I just want to go whatever um see what I'm saying I guess I just don't buy it now if you're getting a PhD in psychology they will tell you you cannot

work another job or law school you can't work another job because it's too demanding cool I fine the payoff on the other end of those jobs is very different than what you're describing as well and so i i guess i just have a hard time with the well he just can't because he's busy i don't buy it you figure out the time you figure out the time and if you can't then you'll have to as a family say okay he can't afford this as a family are we gonna are we gonna subsidize this for the next four years because this problem doesn't go away it's not yeah you know if you create sustainability by you subsidizing it then it's a four-year promise because we don't have we don't have an avenue we don't have an exit ramp to you sustaining it or do you to you're subsidizing it right right okay and i don't i

don't like the i don't like personally i don't like the, I don't like personally, I don't like the problem specific. You just call us if you have a problem, because that's going to lead to a lot of resentment. And well, did you do that? I'd much rather prefer, hey, we're going to agree to cover your rent. Yeah, I think I would do the monthly amount if you're going to promise to do something for four years. But then on top of that answer to your question, we're giving you two pieces of advice. The first one is John's saying he needs to explore work avenues because. Lots of them.

Yeah. And most people who went to college worked. Most people. It's very unusual for someone even working on a phd program to not work and work a lot i worked 40 to 60 hours i graduated in four years with a 2.97 because i was at work all the time and i got out of school so um because i wanted out of school i was paying for it i didn't have any desire to hang around that place i it out and so um i want to quit writing them checks and start receiving checks that was my goal so that that's the first piece of advice

the second piece of advice is i think there's a little bit more if i'm his mom and dad that before i start writing them checks because basically i'm endorsing this path. I want to know more about where this is taking me because education for education's sake is a bad plan when you're this broke. It's a luxury. It's a luxury and education that's not for luxury is for return on investment. I'm not hearing a good return on investment here in what you're describing and so if you're going to go an extra five years to school beyond a normal four or five years, now we're talking about a decade you've been in school, then you should have pay north of six figures day one. Because you can graduate with a four-year degree in logistics right now

and walk out making 90 to 100 you can be a diesel mechanic with a two-year degree and make 90 to 100 so you know what's your roi on this extra five years of phd-ing and it needs to be more than i want to be called doctor oh absolutely and i've got friends who are into environmental issues and then they have their day job and then they work on these things on the weekends they go to presentations they you if you're passionate about something you can study it all day long but you don't take five years out off of life to go do this thing unless it's leading towards an obtainable goal. The PhD should be a requirement for additional income that you wouldn't have without the PhD.

Yeah, or licensure or something. You have to have. Well, it takes you to licensure, which takes you to additional income. You know, you pass the bar. Right. Hello. You know, something like that. It needs to take you somewhere.

And so I really want to understand more about that if i'm in your shoes because i love my son this is the ramsey show dr john deloney ramsey personality is my co-host today open phones at triple eight eight two five five two two five thanks for joining us. Alex is with us in Chattanooga. Hi, Alex. Welcome to the show. Hey, Dave. How are you today? Better than I deserve. What's up? Hey, I love

the show. I love the network. I actually came to my debt-free screen with you a couple years ago, so thank you for you and your team and all that you do. Thank you. No, thank you. So, I think I know the answer to this, but I kind of want to get to, like, I guess kind of a second question if I can. I have an opportunity. I'm a registered nurse.

I'm 35, single, no kids. There's an opportunity for me to stop travel nursing and relocate to San Francisco for a staff position. I would be making, with no overtime, about $225,000, and I've talked to some people that can make up to $300,000 a year with overtime. I do, like I said, understand that San Francisco is very expensive and all of those things, but just with traveling, there's just a lot of uncertainty. Your contract can be canceled at any time. The pay rates have gone down since COVID. I'm kind of tired of being on the road, kind of all those things.

I've talked to people that have been out there and they like it. California does have some strong unions. And with that, you know your guaranteed staffing ratios because you know okay how can we help i'm sorry um i know it's san francisco is it crazy to think to move out there for i mean what's the high cost of living out there well i mean like you know you've obviously analyzed that 300 000 in san francisco is not 300 000 in columbus ohio or dallas texas you've got a number one you got a 14 tax now income tax there that you don't have in other states um and you've got an extremely high cost of living san francisco is one of the most expensive cities to live in in the world.

And so as long as you've analyzed all of that and you still want to go, I'm not going to tell somebody not to do what they want to do. That's what you want to do. Okay. There's nothing wrong with what you're analyzing. What is interesting to me, though, is this. What I might think about if i'm you because i feel like you're the fact that you're asking us the question is it's um

it's almost like you've got some hesitation like you're not really complete gung-ho right so um one of the things i always like to do is I make better decisions if I have lots of options. You presented me only two options, a declining income with travel and your declining desire to travel versus San Francisco. Those are only two options. What about a third or a fourth or a fifth option that includes uh other cities at 200 000 that nets out of nets out of lifestyle and taxes about the same um and it's a bit and it's a quality of life you like more or less i don't know but it feels like you have to feel like you have to

take this because it's your only exit from the road. And that's simply not accurate. Yes, sir. I completely agree. Yeah, I'm essentially looking forward to, like I said, I'm single. I want to go somewhere and settle, set some roots. And so I can as a nurse. I do have the luxury of going most places.

I mean, just at nursing pay, like I said, I live in Chattanooga. The pay in the South is just one of the lowest. I've lived in Memphis and traveled around the South for the last couple of years. I mean, the pay that I got offered here in Chattanooga was $33 an hour. Okay, but again, that's... You're using a barbell, dude. You've got one on one side and one on the other.

There's a big middle range there. I've gotten myself in trouble chasing a salary amount that made me feel like I was being valued and not doing the math in a 360-degree way. Yeah. And again, if you keep saying I'm single, if you're single and you think the San Francisco vibe is cool and that's a vibe you want to live in, it's a lifestyle, you know, the environment you want to plug into socially, that kind of stuff, have at it, dude. I got no issue with that at all.

I'm a redneck hillbilly. The chances of me doing that is zero because i would stand out like a sore thumb there so wouldn't fit in and wouldn't want to so but that's okay that doesn't mean it's not for you right so i can't i can't advise you on that part of you've got to decide that for yourself but um the uh so you gotta but i i am going to challenge you to find three more solid offers and quit just blowing up the entire South. Oh, come on. Give me a break.

Freaking Atlanta, Georgia, Nashville, Tennessee, which is the center of Hospital Corporation of America and three other major hospital companies. A major medical corridor runs right through freaking Nashville is underpaid. Give me a break. Not a chance. Not a chance not a chance another thing go spend some time when my wife and i were deciding we we decided hey we're going to leave west texas um we went and visited some places one of them was in nashville we came here to watch to see a concert and to just spend a couple of days here and we left thinking all right that one's on our list and so go experience the place man but i i think

you're tied to somebody said 300 000 and your heart went that's right and you're gonna make it work you're gonna tell yourself any number of stories to back up i want to make 300 000 and good on you but don't do it just for that number yeah that would be a mistake because i think you could have a comparable number other places if you put a little research into your job hunt you know get on king coleman.com and let's lay that out but i it's but again if you just decide to go do it kristen knock your lights out alex there's nothing wrong with what beautiful part of the country it's absolutely gorgeous you're right and um and there's a lot of very cool stuff there there's a lot of very uncool stuff there too but um it's just a matter of what you want where you want to live and what you want to do and what

you want to plug into and uh but no is it a slam dunk decision no it's not and you make better decisions the more options you have options Options, options, options gives you power. It gives you the sense to calm down. You can negotiate better with the other option if you've got real options outside of your thing. And so always have lots of different things you can do when you're making a decision. Open phones at 888-825-5225.

I was with Ken Coleman and some of the guys working on his team earlier this morning. We're talking about one of the things that's popping up right now with people looking for positions is soft skills. We've got a group of people, regardless of age or which generation, if you want to label it one way or another, that don't have good EQ, emotional quotient. They cannot do conflict. They cannot do basic conversations, look people in the eye, string a sentence together, have a standard, normal, in-person, person-to-person conversation because they've done everything on their phone,

and their brains are wired, and they've lost the ability to do it other than they can text you across the room, but they can't sit and talk to you like a person. And so these soft skills are a big problem. Decision-making is one of those soft skills because what happens in the digital world, if you don't like something, you just move. Boom, it's gone. Boom, it's gone. Boom. you can't do that if you move to san francisco you can't

boom it's gone it's really it's harder to undo real decisions instead of virtual decisions virtual means not real that's what it means literally that's the meaning of the word it's not real it's a fake version of real. That's what virtual means. Look it up in the dictionary. So, you know, soft skills in that goes decision-making. So decision-making is one good decision-making rule is you need more options. Another decision-making rule is the more important the decision, the larger the impact of the decision, the slower you make the decision. That's why you don't go out on a date and get married the next day. Right? That's why you don't go look at a car and buy it when you walk on the lot.

It's why you don't buy a house having looked at only one. Right? Big decisions require length of time to make wise decisions. Small decisions you can make fast. Because you can, you know, what pack of gum do I want? You can make that decision and if it's wrong it doesn't kill you. But the other stuff will throw you off. Slow down on the big stuff. This is the Ramsey Show. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey personality

is my co-host today. Well, let's face it, taxes suck. They're confusing. We don't like them. No one wants to finance a $25,000 toilet seat, and we all know we're doing it. We all know the government's irresponsible with our money when we send it to them, but we have to do it because there's jail time involved. So we have to do it, right? So we're going to do what we're supposed to do.

So people ask all the time, what's the truth about taxes? Well, here's the truth. Don't trust just anybody with your taxes. Because a lot of people say that taxes are like a lot of things. A lot of people say they know something about it, and they don't. So if you have a complicated return, we have vetted and worked with in detail, done the due diligence on about 1,000 folks that are professional tax preparers that can help you with a really complicated return.

They're Ramsey Trusted. The reason they're trusted is we've checked them out up and down, right? And so just go to Ramsey Trusted or go to RamseySolutions.com slash tax pro, and you can find the one in your area, and they'll sit down with you. Now, if you do not have a complicated return, I wouldn't spend that much money. I would just go get the Ramsey Smart Tax software. It's very inexpensive, $30, $40. There's no extra add-ons, no gotchas.

I'm not going to try to sell you a credit card or some of that other crap like these people at TurboTax. Their whole thing is they want to sell you something else other than tax work. And so our deal is real simple. That's why there's now, this year I think there will be about 100,000 people prepare their taxes with the Ramsey Smart Tax software because it's very simple. You're just trying to boom, boom, boom, boom. There we go.

Ramseysolutions.com slash taxpro will hook you up. Kristen's with us in San Antonio. Hi, Kristen. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave and John. I am kind of considering maybe buying my mom a car. She's turning 70 very soon. I'm super excited for her.

And I just want to do something totally generous, just blow her mind and just want to be smart about it, too. That's awesome. Very cool. Good on you, Kristen. Yeah. Yeah. So I assume you have the money in cash.

I got my mom a high five when she turned 70. Now I'm feeling bad. Well, I've given her many high fives, but I'm ready to maybe do a little bit more. I do have the money in cash. How much is the car? Well, I haven't even started looking too seriously because i just didn't know if i was being crazy or not what do you think roughly i mean are you talking about spending a hundred thousand or fifty thousand or ten thousand or uh between 25 30

okay all right and what's your net worth uh 700 okay good for you getting there good for you so what are you 50 uh 42 yeah good for you what do you make thank you uh last year made a little over 200 um hopefully on track for that this year which is which is kind of why you're killing it and you're out of debt i am totally debt free at 65 left on my house good so i'm so close good for you thank you okay so what would be wrong with buying her a car because this all sounds very wise to me i just i'm so frugal i don't spend money i just i can tell i want to blow her mind i just yeah it's just i think that would be really cool um i mean is there any issue with the relationship with her no my mom is not controlling not enabled you're not trying to make up for some childhood scar by not doing this or no i just want to bless her she uh she took care of my dad when he was sick

um he passed away 25 years ago he was 40 i. He died from cancer. She's never remarried. She lives just a quiet life. She'd be there for my sister and I in a heartbeat with anything. She's supported me my whole life. No guilt, no nothing. I just love my amazing mom and just want to do something outrageous for her. Touchdown. You're very cool.

I really like you. A lot. Thank lot yeah i hope my kid says something about me like that that'd be neat i can't speak kristin because i'm gonna cry and i haven't done that yet on any of these shows and i'm pretty dang close i cried an applebee's commercial so um all right so kristin you're pretty amazing you're pretty amazing honey go buy the car there's absolutely zero check in anything you're saying. Please send us a photo or a video of your mom getting it and send it here to the guys on the show. Yeah, we'll put it up on the YouTube.

I just want to see it personally. That's a beautiful story. Yeah, it's a great story. I've got friends that have done that. I don't want to tell a lot of people, but I want to tell you guys. You know what I mean? I want to tell you guys. I don't need to tell friends, family.

It can be just for her. So I definitely will take a photo. So one of my favorite stories, and we videoed it. We haven't played it in a while. I don't know if it's on the YouTube channel or not. It's an old story. A buddy of mine, his dad, this friend of mine is 60. So his dad, or is 50 something right so uh his dad sold a i don't know 1930 or 40 or something car

when uh that wouldn't have been that old it would have been 1960s or something okay i know you're talking about yeah i'm trying to think yeah and he sold the car when his kid was when my buddy was born his dad couldn't afford this car anymore he He sold it. He sold it to a friend down the street. That friend kept it for many, many years and sold it to a pastor. And when, and my, my buddy now is making big money and he went and found that pastor still had it, talked him into selling it back to him and gave it back to his dad. Like 50 years later, I saw that video. That one got me good, man. And that's, that's a version of what you're doing right here.

And it's really cool. It's very cool. Baby step seven is build wealth and give. We tell people all the time, live like no one else, so later you can give and live like no one else. And that's exactly what you're doing. You're amazing. Buy your mom a car, girl.

You did it. Touchdown. That's so cool. That's so fun fun this is what money's good for it's not good for much else yeah feed you feed you and feed others it's about what it's good for it's really good carrie is with us in atlanta georgia hey carrie welcome to the ramsey show hey Hey, how are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Okay, so I've been listening to your show for about eight months. I'm on baby step number two. I've paid off about $12,000 worth of debt. I have about $93,000 left to go besides my mortgage, so not including mortgage. Question, I had some repair guy come in and said that i need a new hvac system

i may need a new electrical repair and plumbing all together it's going to be about twenty one thousand dollars i know you yeah i've already put it stop stop let me just tell you in the hvac world there is a segment of that world that does that. Don't let that guy back in your house. He's a crook. Okay. Okay. I'm calling BS. He told you your family was in danger, didn't he? Yes, he said that.

Our air quality. Yeah, and your house may burn down, and it'll be your fault that your children died. Right. Don't let this guy back and your house may burn down, and it'll be your fault that your children died. Right. Yeah. Don't let this guy back in your house, okay? You can tell I know the script, right? Yeah, absolutely. There's a segment of the heating and air business that does a wonderful job,

and there is a segment that are complete shysters, and they will come in and tell you that your furnace is leaking and everybody in the house is going to die of carbon monoxide poisoning if you don't fix it. complete shysters and they will come in and tell you that your furnace is leaking and you're you know you're everybody in the house is going to die of carbon monoxide poisoning if you don't fix it although it's been this way for five years and we all seem to be fine but yeah right this is a this is bullcrap now do you maybe need a new furnace in the future yeah but is it nearly as expensive or urgent as you were told? 100% no. You can do this much cheaper than this bozo, and it's probably not as urgent as he said.

I'm not 100% sure, but I'm 99.7% sure. Okay. I've already put about $5,500 into the house to get the crawl space waterproofed. The house is about 30 years old, and I only plan on being here about another seven years. Do you think I should put more money into the house? Well, I mean, if the heating and air is not working, you're going to have to fix the heating and air. But right now, we don't have that issue. Okay.

Yeah, because everything's working fine. So, yeah, you're going to have to put more money in the house. If you live there and something breaks, you we don't have that issue okay yeah you're gonna have to put more money in the house if you live there and something breaks you're gonna have to do that but do you upgrade twenty one thousand dollars worth of stuff because some bozo no and carrie you owe a hundred thousand dollars don't you um ninety ninety three ninety three not including my mortgage yeah stop stop fixing your house unless something's broken, it's in dire shape. If nothing's leaking or sparking or anything like that, just keep moving. Yeah.

This is The Ramsey Show. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Well, we've got three events coming up where you can get Ramsey Teachings live, in person, in an auditorium with thousands of other people just like you. Total Money Makeover weekend event, May 10th and 11th. This two-day event is the ultimate motivator to get fired up join us in nashville and you can leave money stress at the door we're not only going to

get you out of debt we're going to get you into wealth we're going to talk to you about generosity how to get your income up how to walk through the relational issues as you're doing all of this how to be married or not married with money and without money, we're going to walk through the whole thing. It is a total money makeover weekend, May 10 and 11. On the campus here, the Ramsey Event Center on the Hill. It only holds 2,400. It is on its way to being an early sellout, and you need to get your tickets now. The next thing is I'm going to be doing something I've never done before,

Dave Ramsey's Investing Essentials, a two-night virtual event, May 21 and 22. It's my personal playbook on investing in real estate. George Campbell and I are going to unpack the basics of investing and also go deep on real estate and other investing and the scams that are out there and the things that the rich don't do, the lies that are told to you by TikTok and other social media platforms about this. The last one is the Money in Marriage event next fall, October 24 and 25. This is Dr. John Deloney and Rachel Cruz with real-life answers to your hard questions about money in marriage.

A whole weekend away with your spouse in Nashville. Again, the Ramsey Events Center. All of these events are available at ramseysolutions.com slash events. All of these events are fun. You will laugh. You will cry. You can bring the person who thinks you're crazy for doing this stuff. They will leave being as crazy as you are.

They'll be on board, on game, ready to go. We will convince them because the stuff we teach absolutely works, and we love helping people. So make plans to attend one of these. We would love to have you here on campus with us and stop by anytime and watch the show. We do it on the glass here right now from 1 to 4 Central Time every day, Monday through Friday.

There's a couple of Ramsey personalities sitting in these seats. I'm usually one of them if I'm in town, and then the rest of them mix and match and fill it in, and that's how we do it. So come and join us. We'd love to have you. Sean is with us. Sean is in Kansas City. Hey, Sean, welcome to the Ramsey Show.

Hi, thank you so much for having me on. Sure, what's up? Well, I wanted to ask you about the baby steps. I've been watching the show for about a month, and I suppose I should give you a little bit of backstory as well, just to give you an idea of why I'm asking the question. My wife and I just had our first son. Yay! He's a couple months old. Thank you. Yeah, so John was nice enough to help me out there. He decided to throw up his lunch while I was waiting. Um, so I wanted to ask about baby steps three and four, because I was actually able to get some 401k from my previous job and I was able to actually save up quite a bit of money while I

worked at that job. And so doing baby step two to pay down all the debt is technically something I can do. But then with the amount of money I would free up each month, it would seem like it would take me forever to do Baby Step 3. And then when I saw Baby Step 4, and correct me if I'm wrong, because you match your employer, right? And then you do 15% and 15%, I believe. So it just seems like... I'm confused. There's no 15% and 15%. So, okay, baby step one is $1,000 in the bank.

Baby step two is you pay off all of your debt except your home. Do you have any debt except your home? We do, yes. Okay. How much is that? So that is close to $40,000. On what? So we have two car payments.

We have a hospital bill for my son's birth. And then we also have to take him to the emergency room. And then my wife's student loan debt. And how much is her student loan debt is how much of the car? How much is the student loan debt? I'm sorry. $33,000. So most of this, you your two car payments are seven

thousand dollars uh if i pay off both the cars i asked you how much debt you had you said forty thousand dollars then you told me you had thirty three thousand dollars of student loan debt that means you've got seven thousand dollars on two cars and the hospital bills you only owe seven thousand dollars on two cars i owe five thousand on the two cars okay all right wow okay yeah because my son's hospital bill was i got you i got you okay i just because i was thinking you i thought you didn't tell me all the debt right that's what i was okay you it is right i got you okay so your household income is what about seventy thousand good and you're 26 right no i'm 31 thank you for telling me okay that's okay I mean you got a brand new baby and you're making 70,000 right so all right and what do you do for

living I'm an electrical apprentice okay all right so first thing is we clear up the 40,000 now you don't have any payments. Then you build an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses because some of your debt is due to not having an emergency fund. Right? Okay. And then once we have an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses, how fast can you do that? You don't have any payments in the world.

You haven't been living on a written budget yet. You've just been discussing the possibility of doing this whole ramsey thing but once you're living on a written budget for 90 days you're going to feel like you got a raise because your money's going to work a lot harder right now there's a lot of waste in your budget so my wife and i were discussing that and how we can cut back on the budget you haven't done the budget yet probably well we were discussing it's theory cut back on it budget you haven't done the budget yet probably well we were discussing it's theory cut back on it's theory okay when you actually start doing it you will find more margin than you realize you have you're doing all this stuff in your head right now and on in hypotheticals

rather than actually freaking doing it so actually start doing a budget for 90 days. And then I promise you from 32 years of doing what I do, you will feel like you've gotten a raise. You will find money you didn't realize you had. Now, then you're going to be able to build a three to six months of emergency fund. It's going to take you about six months to a year after you pay off the $40,000 in debt. Then and only then are you going to start putting money into your 401k. And then and only then, baby step four is 15% of your household income. Does your wife work outside the home? Yeah, she works outside the home.

What does she make? She makes about, so together we make 70. She makes about 35 of that. Okay. All right right so when will your apprenticeship be done in a couple of years i just started about six months ago and what will your income do then double uh i'll go up to 40 an hour yeah and you're at 20 now uh yeah yeah it's double kind of like doubling yeah okay and so um then then what we're going to do is you're you're going to be making a hundred thousand dollars a year and you will be debt free

and you're putting fifteen thousand dollars a year fifteen percent of your household income regardless of match you put in fifteen percent of your household income so by then you've been making a hundred thousand you're putting fifteen away, and by then you'll be 35 years old. And so you have 30 years if you never get a raise to invest $15,000 a year, okay? And that's going to amount to about $8 million at 65. Okay. So I understand what you're saying, but my question is, if I'm doing this all in my head, right, how do we plan for the extra money properly when baby steps two and three are essentially what you say, living on beans and rice?

Because if I have to take my son to the emergency room again, if I have to get a car, the only way you know how to do that is to... You have to get a car? What is have to get a car? Well, in case something happens and we have to pay for it to get repaired or we have to... Okay, fixing a car could happen. You have a thousand dollars set aside. Or if one of the vehicles breaks down or something. Bro, what if we get hit by a meteorite, what if you keep doing what you've been doing

and you stay broke as hell for the rest of your life? You could do that, too. That's an option. So my question is, in those emergencies, I have the savings fund for three to six months. Would you recommend I pull from that resource? Yes, it's an emergency. Yeah, if your kid has to go to emergency room. If you have your three to six months. If you're in baby step two, no, you're only going to have $1,000. Would you recommend I pull from that resource? Yes. It's an emergency. Yeah.

If your kid has to go to emergency room. If you have your three to six months, if you're in baby step two, no, you're only going to have $1,000. That's all you're going to have. So you're going to have to stop your baby step two, your debt snowball at that point, and fix that if that happens during the two years that it takes you to get out of debt. But you should be out of debt in two years or less. So listen, dude, you're overanalyzing this. You need to go do it. That's the difference. And then tell me how it's wrong. Millions of people have done what I'm telling you to do. It absolutely works. This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you.